


This is the dawning of the rest of our lives

by TreeTree



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, M/M, Tony Stark Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 17:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9777740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TreeTree/pseuds/TreeTree
Summary: Tony and Steve talk after Peggy's funeral about the accords and their relationship.





	

**Author's Note:**

> There is no way that Tony didn't know Peggy and he should have been at that funeral. And yes, the title is from a Green Day song.

Today is one of the worst days of Steve's life. It's right up there with the day he lost his mother, the day Bucky fell, and the day he crashed the plane. Peggy Carter is dead. Peggy, who was so strong and beautiful. Peggy, who was the only thing left from Steve's past when he got out of the ice. He knew it was coming, of course he did, but that doesn't make it hurt any less. 

After everything is over, Steve's still sitting there in the pew of the church. He notices someone, who he assumes is Sam, sit down beside him. Steve doesn't want to talk to anyone about anything right now. 

"I'm not in the mood, Sam," he says.

"I'm not Sam," says the voice of Tony Stark himself. 

Steve looks up to see Tony looking at him with, what he interprets as pity. It's weird though, because it looks as if Tony's been crying. That can't be right, because Tony Stark doesn't cry very often. He barely shows any emotion at all, because it makes him feel weak and he hates that. 

"I don't need your pity, Stark. Just go annoy someone else today," Steve says.

"You think I pity you? Are you really that full of yourself? People say I'm bad, but you're ten times worse," Tony says with a hysterical laugh.

"Shut your fucking mouth, Stark. You have no idea what I'm going through right now," Steve growls.

"What you're going through? What you're going through? You mean Peggy's death? Peggy, who you only knew for a few months? That Peggy?," Tony asks incredulously.

"You have no right to talk about her like that!"

"You aren't the only one who's upset about this, Rogers! You act as if you're the only one who's allowed to know or love her. Newsflash, she didn't belong to you. Peggy Carter never belonged to anyone and she'd be offended by how you're acting right now," Tony yells.

"Yeah? Well, what's it to you?," Steve asks.

"Aunt Peggy saved my life more times than I can count. She was the only one who was ever nice to me as a kid. When your best buddy Howard would beat the shit out of me, Peggy was the one who would come to my rescue. There was one memorable time when he smashed a bottle over my head. I was twelve at the time and I called Peggy before I passed out. She came and drove me to the hospital. Aunt Peggy was the only person to ever really love me and now she's gone. The only reason I stayed behind was because I thought you of all people would understand how I'm feeling right now," Tony says quietly with tears now freely falling from his eyes. 

Steve's never seen Tony so upset, not even when Pepper left him. Not even when Steve walked out on him. He hates how things ended with Tony, he hates that these Accords are tearing them apart. Tony told him that they would make it work, that just because they were on different sides of this it didn't mean they had to break up. He begged Steve not to leave and he left anyway. Now, after everything Steve said to him, he still came to him for comfort. And Steve rejected him again. He hurt the man he loves again. 

"Tony, I'm sorry. I had no idea that you even knew her," Steve says quietly.

"I never wanted you to know. I wanted Aunt Peggy to be my secret, I wanted to keep that part of her for myself. You should've seen her face when I told her we were dating, she was so happy. Then, she made fun of me because I had a crush on you when I was a kid. I never had the heart to tell her you left, didn't want her to hate you," Tony whispers.

"She actually approved of us?"

"Of course she did, she saw how happy I was. I told her how happy you were too, or how happy I thought you were. Guess I was wrong about that one."

"Tony, I was happy with you. That wasn't fake. I could never fake something like that," Steve says sincerely.

"I know you're Captain America and Captain America can't lie, but you're lying. If you were so damn happy, why did you leave me for him?"

"I didn't leave you for Bucky," Steve says.

"Yes you did! I know that you were together since before the war and you left me. It's obvious that I was just a replacement for him in your mind," Tony says, on the verge of sobbing now.

"No, no, no. That's not it, that's never been it. You weren't a replacement for anyone, Tony. I love you," Steve says.

"Then why did you leave?"

That's what breaks Steve. That one little question is all it takes for him to break down sobbing and clinging to Tony. 

"I d-don't k-k-know! I was scared... I had a whole thing planned. I bought a ring and everything, I was going to ask you to marry me. How did I fuck up this badly? I'm so s-sorry, Tony. I didn't mean any of it, not one word of it. It's been awful without you, but I've been too stubborn to apologize."

"You were going to purpose?," Tony asks.

"Yeah, I was. I was going to make sure it was perfect and romantic. The ring's still in my pocket," Steve says, pulling out said ring.

Tony gently takes the box from Steve with trembling fingers. He opens the box with a gasp at how beautiful the ring is. It's the same blue as Steve's uniform, actually, it looks more like the blue from the shield. The ring is vibranium, probably made out of a part of Steve's shield itself. 

"I would have said yes, Steve. If you had asked me before all of this went down, I would have said yes."

"And now?," Steve asks cautiously.

"I don't know. Before we started dating, I never wanted to get married but then I fell in love with you. Love made me want to marry you and adopt a bunch of under privileged kids and be disgustingly domestic. I had never been sure about anything before in my life, but I was sure about you. For some reason, I had faith that you'd stay by my side. You were the one thing I was sure about but I was wrong for getting my hopes up," Tony whispers.

"Tony, please. I'm so goddamn sorry. I wish I could take it all back, I wish none of us were fighting. I just want my family back together again. All I need is Bucky's freedom, after he gets that, I'll do whatever it takes to make this right."

"Do you really mean that?"

"More than anything. I miss that big ugly tower of yours and waking up next to you," Steve says sincerely.

"I miss everyone else who left. I'll see what I can do for him, Steve. Until then, give these to Katniss and tell him that I moved Laura and the kids for their own safety," says Tony, handing Steve a bundle of letters from the Barton kids to their father.

"He'll appreciate that, Tones. Tell Vision Wanda misses him a crazy amount."

"Tell Wanda Vision misses her too. Tasha won't say this, but I know she misses all of you too. Being on the opposite side of Clint isn't easy for her. She might have cried on my shoulder, but don't tell her I told you that. She'll kill me," Tony says with a warped version of his paparazzi smirk.

"She cried?!," Steve asks incredulously.

"Shh! She can probably hear you. I don't know how, but she can. I have to go work some things out with Ross about Bucky's freedom. If I stay here any longer, I'd have to arrest you," Tony says sadly.

"I really am sorry, Tony. I know it will take some time until you trust me again, but I'm willing to put in that effort."

"I was only ever trying to protect us. I was only ever trying to keep everyone together. If you think it over, you'll see it. That's what Wanda showed me during the whole Ultron thing. All of you, dead, because of me. That's why I did all of this," Tony says, turning towards the door. 

"Tony, unless you slit our throats or pulled the trigger yourself, it would never be your fault. You've always been too hard on yourself," Steve says.

"That may be true, but everyone else was and still are even harder on me. Blame Tony Stark, he fucks up all the time so it must have been his fault," Tony says, still walking towards the doors.

"We don't-," Steve starts and then stops, because they do. 

Before this, if something went wrong they all would turn to him instantly. If Bruce blew up something in the lab, they all assumed it was Tony until Bruce would tell them otherwise. When they found out about Tony and Pepper's breakup, they heard a rumour it was because he was cheating on her and they believed it. And now, with the Accords, everyone was quick to disagree with Tony and didn't even attempt to listen. 

"You see it now, don't you? Don't blame yourself, it seems to be everyone's natural response to me as a person," Tony says, at the doors now.

"You're not the villain in this, Tony. Everyone thinks you are, but you aren't. You're a good man Tony Stark," Steve says.

"And you're either very stupid or very sweet, Cap. I'll see what I can do for Barnes, but I can't promise you anything," Tony says and then he's gone. 

Steve knows he's going to have to tell Tony the truth about what really happened to his parents soon. He has to tell him everything before they loose everything. That is, if they haven't already lost it. Steve's already forgiven Tony, because there's nothing to forgive. All he can do now is hope that Tony forgives him, even if that takes the rest of their lives.


End file.
